By: Sattwik Biswal
AZEEM RAFIQ said many victims of abuse have been deterred coming forward because of the backlash he faced as a whistleblower for racism in English cricket.
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee on Friday (14) warned the sport in the country to “clean up its act” on racism or face a cut in government funding.
Former player Rafiq, who gave an emotional testimony to the committee in November about the abuse he faced during his two stints at Yorkshire, has commended the report.
Shortly after his November hearing, Rafiq’s exchange of messages in 2011 emerged, which were antisemitic in nature, and were published by The Times. Rafiq immediately apologised to the Jewish community and says he is continuing to improve his “understanding”.
Rafiq accepts the criticism that he faced for those messages, but says there have been attempts to smear his image.
“The one thing that I want to really pick up on is the antisemitic messages that surfaced, which I’d made when I was younger,” Rafiq told Sky Sports News on Friday (14).
“It’s something I regret massively, I’m angry with myself, but I’ve apologised to the Jewish community, they’ve been incredibly kind and I’m spending more time with them to try to bridge that gap in my understanding of the Jewish community.
“But a lot of other things that happened behind the scenes, and they’ve continued to happen, have been quite atrocious. It’s been ridiculous, some of the fabricated lies, some of the...
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